Who BUYS tickets to a show and doesn’t attend? Both reports show more tickets were sold than the total of people who actually attended – even though 331 tickets were comped for the November show and 220 in December. Can these reports be trusted?

It is common for corporations or similar groups to have tickets for ALL shows as part of an advertising package. Many times those tickets go unused, so that would show more tickets sold and then not be reflected in actual attendance. That’s one possibility for the difference.

Yes, it is very common that tickets given to someone (even though the giver actually paid for them) go unused. Or think of it this way….a season ticket purchase for 20 events counts as 20 tickets sold, but if the buyer only attends 15 of the shows then the actual attendance will be reported as 5 lower than sold tickets. Happens all the time. Tickets sold will NEVER be the same numbers as actual attendance.

YEP! Just like the county fair. When say, Country Financial gets 1,000 tickets, they have SOLD (it’s an advertising write off) and IF they give 500 away, then 500 went unused.. So it reality, NO person bought the tickets and didn’t go, it’s unused tickets that sponsors, advertisers, box holders, etc DID NOT USE. But they ARE counted as sold.
Fairly common practice in the “events field” to “pillow” the numbers!!